This fish tank is still under guarantee, so I’m testing it to check that I’m not mistaken and it leaks. If you like watching paint dry you’ll love this video.
Posts Tagged ‘fish house’
The Leaking Fish Tank
Sunday, April 19th, 2009These times are changing…
Friday, April 3rd, 2009These times are changing it’s been five years, I’ve been blogging, and the software I’ve been using has run it’s course and it’s time to upgrade to something more current. Over the next coming months, I will try and merge aquablog and our house blogs into one blog, with different categories, rather than two seperate blogs which is how they exist at present. This will allow me to blog in more specific categories, fish house, garden DIY, car, computers, internet etc, you get the general idea. So you can select a category (section) to read, rather than ready all the rubbish I blog about. The FishHouse Blog! and Our House blogs haven’t moved and are still there. Just click the links to access them. Eventually they will be merged into categorys (sections) here.
Andy’s Day Off!
Monday, June 30th, 2008YEDL our electrical supplier were fiddling with the electrical supply again today! So I stayed at home to “baby-sit” the fish house, whilst it was on generator power from 8am this morning, supply was back on at 2.30pm.
So I decided to cut our massive hedge, we have a number of hedges that surround the front garden, there are two hedges that border the driveway, a typical hedge-row of blackthorn, hawthorn, bramble etc and a privet hedge, if only I knew someone with stick-insects they would have food for a year! Total length of hedge which needs cutting is approx 300ft, and the driveway has been rapidly disappearing, with the warm/wet weather. Another typical hedge-row of blackthorn, hawthorn, bramble etc surrounds the front garden, this has grown over 10ft in height!
My brother an RHS Qualified Garden Landscaper at Groundscaper recommended I purchase a Stihl HS45 Petrol Edger (West Country slang for Hedge Trimmer!).
Although expensive, it cuts through my hedges like a knife through butter. You have to be a bit careful with the privet hedge, because before you know, you’ve cut two foot off without noticing! Although it weighs approx 4.9kg with fuel, it’s Anti-vibration system and ergonomics make it easier to cut with for long periods of time.
A view down the drive from house, before privet-hedge was cut
A view up the drive towards house, before privet-hedge was cut. The hedgerow on the rights has already been cut.
A view up the drive towards house, before privet-hedge was cut.
Close-up of privet-hedge before it was cut
Privet-hedge after the hedge was cut taken from the house looking down the drive. Another tip from my brother an RHS Qualified Garden Landscaper at Groundscaper, before cutting, lay a tarpuline under the hedge to collect, hedge trimmings, move along the hedge as you cut, quick and easy to clear-up afterwards!
Privet-hedge after the hedge was cut taken from the house lookign down the drive. In the distance is the green reycycle bin to take to the tip, with hedge cuttings. It’s not difficult cutting hedges, it’s all the clippings you need to tidy up afterwards.
Privet-hedge after the hedge was cut taken from the house looking down the drive.
Privet-hedge after the hedge was cut taken towards the house looking down the drive.
Close-up of the privet-hedge after cutting.
What’s Growing!!!
Saturday, June 21st, 2008Earlier in the year I planted tomatoe seeds, first early potatoes, garlic was planted last year in September. Here are some pictures of the results.
I’m trying an experiment, of growing six varities of tomatoes, six in the green house in growbags using growpots, six outside using growbags and growpots, and six plants planted in 10L pots. This year I’m using double-height Miracle-Gro Organic growbags, instead of purchasing two normal size/width growbags.
tomatoes plants in 10l pots, outside in the garden.
six tomatoes plants outside using growbags and growpots
six tomatoes plants inside the greenhouse using growbags and growpots
tomatoes plants in 10l pots, inside the greenhouse.
first early potatoes planted in Humax organic potatoe bags by Medwyn Williams, Medwyn was the father of one of the boys that went to my school, and lived a couple of minutes from where I lived! I’ve recently noticed there is an Organic Humax range for potaotes, strawberrys, chillis, tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes etc Something to try next year. In the background you can see my six blueberry bushes.
Blueberrys ripening…not long now until eating, when they turn blue/purple! Must keep the water on!
Almost time to pull the garlic for eating, umm wet garlic!
Not for eating, but included for interest, the first Busy Lizzie ‘Blue Sky’ plants [RARE] and a few Begonia.
P.S. The chilli seeds/plants were a disaster! I decided to use my fish house and heated propagators to germinate them, the problem was, they spouted in record time, but overheated in the propagators and all died! So next year I need to find a cooler place or not use the heated propagators, or turn off, after they’ve germinated!
Touch Wood!
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Fish from the auction are settling in well. I’ve also started my Fish House spring clean, and have emptied some fish stuff from a tug, that was collected when I dismantled the display tanks, when I moved a few years ago! Doesn’t time fly!
The repaired tank is currently soak testing, I let the silcone cure for 48 hours before, half-filling with water, I completed filing the tank with water this evening. The tank holds 254 litres of water. Tomorrow evening, I’ll be emptying the tank, and adding sand as a substrate and rocks, and re-filling with water at the correct temperatures. I’ve already got a mature external Eheim Professional 2 Thermofilter filter this tank, that I’ve had for some months. The special fish will be added on Saturday!
Empty and Cracked
Monday, April 21st, 2008Some months ago, I moved a very heavy 48″x18″x18″ fish tank into the fish house, despite soak-testing for many weeks outside, on re-filling in the fish house it cracked!
It’s been sat, empty and cracked in the fish house for months, and I’ve finally decided to do something about it.
I measured it this morning, and purchased some replacement glass, to re-glaze the bottom in hope to patch it up. I purchased a 18″x12″ 6mm section, and this evening, cleaned the tank with meths, and siliconed in place. I’m going to leave it cure for 48 hours, and test fill!
Happy British Summer Time!
Sunday, March 30th, 2008It’s been months since my last posting, I cannot say I’ve been busy, just not finding the time to do stuff. But now full of vigor, now that the dark nights have come to an end.
I’ve just purchased an Arc Tank 20L made by the lighting guys from Arcadia, it’s a small 20L “Nano” tank, which I intend to plant-up and add a small number of fish. I’ve also decided to make some big changes in the next few months in the fish house, and start adding substrates and plants to some of the tanks in the fish house.
Bad things come in threes!
Thursday, December 6th, 2007Earlier this evening I was going to post an entry about bad things coming in threes, when only two Fish House issues had occured since Sunday 2nd December, I was going to post, what’s the third, well it happened! So let me wind back to Sunday 2nd December
- Early evening there was an initial mains power cut of a few minutes (approx 5 mins), too short for me to find a torch, and start-up the generator to power the fish house, after the main outage, the power flickered on and off for a few minutes and then it went off for good. The only problem this time, street lights were on, and the neighbours house lights, so the problem was localised, I found the 32A ring main for the sockets downstairs had tripped, on switching back-on, the main earth breaker tripped! After running around the house, unplugging all sockets, the fault was isolated to the fish house, my concern that the “brownout” had caused some equipment failure!
At the back of the fish house, I noticed a pool of water, and realised, I’d overfilled one of my tanks, which had back-syphoned into the sump, when the power was off for those few minutes, which had then shorted out a “chocolate block” (terminal block for the layman!) which connects the heater in the sump! This is the only electrical wire on the fish house floor, so if any water gets on the floor, electrics are not affected! You’ll be glad to know, this has now been fixed, no “chocolate block” anymore!
- Went todo some washing this evening and found water all over the floor again near my water treatment works at the rear of the fish house, started to move everything out, thinking a water pipe/valve/seal had failed, and noticed the water had blood it in! I then noticed that the freezer, I keep my fish food in, hadn’t been turned back on since Sunday 2nd December! The fozen bloodworm was defrosting, and the freezer had already defrosted all over the floor!
- On Monday 3rd December, I noticed two home bred albino Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish), almost in a trance, not moving, I thought they were dead, in my 6ftx2ftx2ft display tank. They weren’t in a very good state, it was strange because all the Angelfish, Corydoras, L number plecos, Clown Loaches were showing no signs of distress, I fished them out and dropped them in a tank full of algae. 24 hours later, they are fit as a fiddle again, and the algae on the tank has gone, so although I cannot see them, I know they are alive and well. (did spot them this eve!).
Late this evening, I found another Ancistrus (bristlenose catfish) dead in my display tank, this raised the alarm, to check all the water paramaters, still surprised that no other fish are showing signs of distress. The ammonia in the water, was slightly elevated, slightly higher than I’d like, this could have been caused by the dead fish, or another factor, no time to waste, 50% water change with water at same temperature and chemistry, and I’ve added two large sheets of Polyfilter just as “belt’s and braces”, I’ll re-check ammonia/ph tomorrow evening!
So there we have it, Bad things come in threes! No need to worry about the third!
Mr Nasty – Male Green Terror – Aequidens rivulatus
Thursday, November 15th, 2007I have a pair, well a male and a female, and they fight like cats and dogs, I think the female has a bad attitude! I was hoping to breed them, but they are in different tanks, 12 feet apart at opposite ends of the fish house, I don’t think they can see each other!
Here’s a quick video of the male, lovely fish.
Tropheus Moorii Ikola & Synodontis Petricola
Thursday, November 15th, 2007These are currently two of my favourite fish, Tropheus Moorii Ikola cichlids and Synodontis Petricola catfish. I have five wild sub adults Tropheus Moorii Ikola and six Wild Synodontis Petricola. I’m very tempted to convert to Lake Tanganyikan Cichlids, the water here in Yorkshire is suited to these fish. Watch this space. There are many different colour variations of Tropheus Moorii, and these little fish, are very aggressive. I hope to breed them in the future.
Technology has moved on, and it’s easier for me to pop into the fish house with a DV Camcorder, hook up to PC, capture the contents to a Windows Media Video (WMV) file, and upload to YouTube for hosting. So here’s the first one, you can expect some more in the future.
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